Jacinda Ardern today says she's "extraordinarily grateful" for how New Zealanders have acted under weeks of trying lockdown conditions, with a move to Covid-19 Alert Level 2 not far away.
However she says in order to keep on top of the coronavirus, Kiwis need to take restrictions under Level 2 seriously.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced New Zealand will move to Alert Level 2 from 11.59pm Wednesday.
It means more businesses, including gyms, movies and shopping centres will open up, and people can again see friends and family. However, gatherings are limited to 10 people and social distancing should be maintained where possible, as well as basic hygiene measures like hand washing and cough and sneeze etiquette.
New Zealand went in full lockdown at Alert Level 4 on March 25, before and easing to Level 3 on April 28.
This morning, speaking on TVNZ1's Breakfast, Ms Ardern thanked Kiwis for their efforts during the coronavirus lockdown.
Modelling showed that without the nationwide lockown, there could have been as many as 1000 new Covid-19 cases a day and tens of thousands of deaths in New Zealand.
"It is probably the appropriate time to stop for just a moment and think back on that period because we were facing some devastating predictions and that's why we did all, as a country not just as a Government, move as quickly as we did and we did that collectively because we could see what the consequence were elsewhere, it wasn't necessarily a hypothetical, it was playing out in front of us," Ms Ardern said.
"But we have carved a different path and I am extraordinarily grateful for New Zealanders doing that because it wasn't something that we could do on our own, it required everyone."
Ms Ardern said, while she was not naive to human behaviour she had faith in New Zealanders abiding by restrictions under Level 2.
"By and large, we've seen the vast majority of people just wanting to do this right and I think that will continue, we might see a bit around the edges but I do think that no one wants to lose what we've gained and everyone wants to see us increase those freedoms.
"The decision we made yesterday was ultimately one where we wanted to open up workplaces, businesses and people's ability to be in their jobs as much as possible.
"The way to do that though was to ask other New Zealanders just to pull back on some of their social life just for a little bit still. That's the way we balanced the risk.
"So we've made a call to help support people's livelihoods and the flip side is we're asking people just to have a few little constraints around how many people they mix and mingle with for a little while longer."
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